Decision making process and legal documents

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Decision making process and legal documents

• By Ruth Tammeorg
• European Documentation Centre
• Tartu University Library
• Estonia

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Community acquis Acquis communautaire

• The Community acquis is the body of common rights
  and obligations
• which bind all the Member States together within
  the European Union.
• It is constantly evolving and comprises
• the content, principles and political objectives
  of the Treaties
• the legislation adopted in application of the
  treaties and the case law of the Court of Justice
• the declarations and resolutions adopted by the
  Union
• measures relating to the common foreign and
  security policy
• measures relating to justice and home affairs
• international agreements concluded by the
  Community and those concluded by the Member
  States between themselves in the field of the
  Union's activities
• http//europa.eu.int/scadplus/glossary/community_a
  cquis_en.htm

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Treaties

• The treaties constitute the European Unions
  primary legislation, which is comparable to
  constitutional law at national level. They thus
  lay down the fundamental features of the Union,
  in particular the responsibilities of the various
  actors in the decision-making process, the
  legislative procedures, under the Community
  system and the powers conferred on them. The
  treaties themselves are the subject of direct
  negotiations between the governments of the
  Member States, after which they have to be
  ratified in accordance with the procedures
  applying at national level (in principle by the
  national parliaments or by referendum).
• Founding treaties Accession treaties Other
  treaties and protocols
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm1.1

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Treaties

• Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European
  Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the
  European UnionOfficial Journal C 115 of 9 May
  2008
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uriOJC20081
  15SOMENHTML
• Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European
  Union and the Treaty establishing the European
  Community, signed at Lisbon, 13 December
  2007Official Journal C 306 of 17 December 2007
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uriOJC20073
  06SOMENHTML
• Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European
  UnionOfficial Journal C 303 of 14 December 2007
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?
  uriOJC200730300010016ENPDF
• EUROPEAN UNION CONSOLIDATED VERSIONS OF THE
  TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION AND OF THE TREATY
  ESTABLISHING THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
• Official Journal C 321E of 29 December
  2006
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?
  uriOJC2006321E00010331ENpdf

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Founding treaties

• Treaty on European Union (1992)
• Treaty establishing the European Economic
  Community (1957)
• Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy
  Community (1957)
• Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel
  Community (1951)
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm

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Accession treaties

• Treaty concerning the accession of the Republic
  of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union
  (2005)
• Accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus,
  Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland,
  Slovenia and Slovakia (2003)
• Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden (1994)
• Accession of Spain and Portugal (1985)
• Accession of Greece (1979)
• Accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United
  Kingdom (1972)
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm

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Other treaties and protocols

• Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
  (2004)
• Treaty of Nice (2001)
• Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
• Single European Act (1986)
• Greenland Treaty (1984)
• Merger Treaty (1965)
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm

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Intergovernmental Conference - Conference of the
governments of the Member States convened in
order to negotiate amendments to existing treaties

• The Treaty on European Union contains a provision
  allowing for the revision of the treaties.
  Article 48 states that any Member State or the
  Commission may submit proposals to the Council
  for amending the treaties. This opens the way,
  if the Council agrees, for the convening by the
  President of the Council of an Intergovernmental
  Conference (IGC).
• Amending the treaties requires the unanimous
  agreement of all Member States. It also requires
  ratification by all Member States in accordance
  with their own respective internal procedures
  before a new treaty can enter into force.
•  
• There have been a number of Intergovernmental
  Conferences over recent years. These have
  resulted in successive amending treaties, notably
  the Single European Act (1986), the Treaty on
  European Union (1992), the Treaty of Amsterdam
  (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2001).
• The Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on
  European Union and the Treaty establishing the
  European Community has been signed in Lisbon on
  13 December 2007 by the representatives of the 27
  Member States. In accordance with its Article 6,
  the Treaty will have to be ratified by the Member
  States in accordance with their respective
  constitutional requirements and will enter into
  force on 1 January 2009, provided that all
  instruments of ratification have been deposited,
  or, failing that, on the first day of the month
  following the deposit of the last instrument of
  ratification.
• http//consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id
  1296langen

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The secondary legislation

• The secondary legislation is the third major
  source of Community law after the treaties
  (primary legislation) and international
  agreements.
• totality of the legislative instruments adopted
  by the European institutions pursuant to the
  provisions of the treaties.
• binding legal instruments (regulations,
  directives and decisions)
• non-binding instruments (resolutions, opinions)
• Other instruments such as the institutions
  internal regulations and Community action
  programmes.
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm1.3

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Preparatory acts

• Legislative proposals and opinions from the
  Commission.
• Member States initiative
• Council common position
• European Parliaments legislative resolution
• Opinions of the European Economic and Social
  Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm1.5

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Case-law

• Judgments of the Court of Justice and the Court
  of First Instance
• Opinions of the Court of Justice
• Orders of the Court of Justice and the Court of
  First Instance
• Submissions of the advocates-general
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm1.3

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Decision-making process of European Union.
Legislative procedures

• In contrast to the national systems, in which the
  will of the nation is expressed in Parliament,
  the European Union accords a major legislative
  role to the representatives of the Member States
  meeting in the Council. As the institutions have
  developed, the European Parliament has seen its
  powers increase the Council now shares its
  legislative powers with Parliament for the
  adoption of general legal instruments of a
  binding nature (regulations and directives). The
  decision-making procedures comprise the assent
  procedure, the co-decision procedure, the
  cooperation procedure and the consultation
  procedure.

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Assent procedure (Code AVC)

• The assent procedure, which was introduced by the
  Single European Act, gives Parliament the
  possibility of expressing its approval or
  disapproval of certain Council instruments. There
  are certain matters on which the Council cannot
  legislate unless Parliament gives its consent by
  an absolute majority of its members. The assent
  procedure, which represents as it were a right of
  veto for Parliament, was originally intended to
  apply only to the conclusion of association
  agreements and the examination of applications to
  join the European Community. The areas in which
  the assent procedure applies at present are as
  follows
• enhanced cooperation (Article 11(2)),
• specific tasks of the ECB (Article 105(6)),
• amending the Statute of the European System of
  Central Banks (Article 107(5)),
• Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund (Article
  161),
• uniform procedure for elections (Article 190(4)),
  
• certain international agreements (Article
  300(3)),
• violation of human rights (Article 7 of the
  Treaty on European Union),
• accession of new Member States (Article 49 of the
  Treaty on European Union)
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm2.1
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/pr
  ocedure_avis_conforme.gif

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Co-decision procedure (Code COD)

• The co-decision procedure, which was introduced
  by the Treaty on European Union, was conceived as
  an extension of the cooperation procedure.
  However, while in the latter the Council can,
  acting unanimously, disregard the opinion of
  Parliament, in the co-decision procedure there is
  no such possibility in the event of
  disagreement, a conciliation committee made up of
  representatives of the Council and of Parliament
  has to arrive at a text that is acceptable to the
  two institutions. The co-decision procedure now
  puts these two institutions on an equal footing
  in the legislative roles. Under this procedure,
  the Council cannot adopt a common position if the
  process of conciliation with Parliament fails. If
  no agreement is reached, the legislative process
  is liable to be broken off.
• Co-decision has become by far the most important
  procedure in legislative practice.
• It concerns many areas, for example
• non-discrimination on grounds of nationality
  (Article 12),
• combating discrimination based on sex, racial or
  ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability,
  age or sexual orientation (Article 13(2)),
• freedom of movement and of residence (Article
  18(2)),
• free movement of workers (Article 40),
• social security for migrant workers (Article 42),
  
• right of establishment (Article 44(1), Article
  46(2), Article 47(1) and (2)),
• visas, asylum, immigration and other policies
  relating to the free movement of persons (Article
  67(4) and (5))
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm2.2
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/pr
  ocedure_de_codecision.gif

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Cooperation procedure (Code SYN)

• The cooperation procedure was introduced by the
  Single European Act to step up the role of the
  European Parliament compared with the
  consultation procedure. Parliament can make
  amendments to a Council common position but,
  unlike the co-decision procedure, the final
  decision lies with the Council alone.
• The cooperation procedure applies exclusively to
  the following areas
• rules for the multilateral surveillance procedure
  (Article 99(5)),
• prohibition on privileged access to financial
  institutions (Article 102(2)),
• prohibition on assuming liability for Member
  States commitments (Article 103(2)),
• measures to harmonise the circulation of coins
  (Article 106(2)).
• Since the entry into force of the Treaty of
  Amsterdam, all other areas previously subject to
  this procedure have come under the co-decision
  procedure
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm2.3
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/pr
  ocedure_de_cooperation.gif

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The consultation procedure (Code CNS)

• Since the introduction of the cooperation
  procedure and the co-decision procedure, the
  importance of the consultation procedure has
  steadily declined. The characteristic feature of
  the consultation procedure is a division of tasks
  between the Commission and the Council that can
  be summed up in the phrase the Commission
  proposes, the Council disposes. However, before
  the Council can take a decision, certain stages
  have to be completed, in the course of which,
  besides the Commission and the Council, the
  European Parliament, the European Economic and
  Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions
  may also have their say, depending on the subject
  of the regulations in question.
• The consultation procedure now applies only
  to cases that are not expressly subject to the
  cooperation or co-decision procedures.
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/dr
  oit_communautaire.htm2.4
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/pr
  ocedure_de_consultation.gif

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Documents of the European Commission

• COM documents Legislative proposals, White
  Papers, Green Papers
• SEC documents
• C documents
• Register of Commission documents
• http//ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/recherche.
  cfm?CLen

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Documents of the European Parliament

• Agendas
• Draft reports and opinions
• Reports adopted in committee
• Part-session minutes
• Attendance register and results of roll-call
  votes
• Texts adopted by Parliament
• Resolutions
• Written declarations
• Debates in plenary
• Bulletins
• Parliamentary questions
• Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament
  with Index
• Documents from previous parliamentary terms
• http//www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/plenary/r
  eports.do?languageEN
• http//www.europarl.europa.eu/RegWeb/application/r
  egistre/simpleSearch.faces

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Documents of the Council of the European Union

• http//www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.as
  p?id1279langEN

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Documents of the European Council. Presidency
Conclusions

• http//www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.as
  p?id432langETmodeg
• http//www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/index.htm

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Documents of the European Economic and Social
Committee (EESC)

• http//eesc.europa.eu/documents/opinions/avis_en.a
  sp?typeen
• EESC Register of documents
• http//eesc.europa.eu/activities/press/registry/in
  dex_en.asp

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Documents of the Committee of the Regions

• http//www.cor.europa.eu/

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Documents of the Court of Justice and of the
Court of First Instance

• Judgments
• Orders
• Opinions
• Summaries
• http//curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang
  en

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Document registers of the European Parliament,
the Council of the European Union and the
European Commission

• http//europa.eu/documents/registers/index_en.htm

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General publications of the European Union
Official Information The authoritative source of
EU law The Official Journal of the European
Union (OJ)

• Published every working day in all official
  languages of the European Union (EU).
• L series for legislation
• C series for information and notices
• S series Supplement for public procurement
• Electronic section to the C series the OJ C E.   
   
• Annex. Debates of the European Parliament
• The Special Edition of the Official Journal in
  the languages of the new Member States 2004, 2007
• http//europa.eu/eur-lex/en/accession.html
• http//eur-lex.europa.eu/en/enlargement/enlargemen
  t_2007.html

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General publications of the European Union.
Official Information Bulletin of the European
Union

• http//europa.eu/bulletin/en/welcome.htm

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General publications of the European Union
Official InformationGeneral Report on the
Activities of the European Union

• http//europa.eu/generalreport/en/welcome.htm

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WHERE TO FIND EU DOCUMENTS Europa on the Web
(http//europa.eu) Documents. European law

• EUR-LEX, the portal to European Union law
• ŒIL, the Legislative Observatory
• Pre-Lex, monitoring of the decision-making
  process between institutions
• Case law
• Summaries of legislation
• http//europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm

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EUR-LEX, the portal to European Union law

• OFFICIAL JOURNAL
• SEARCH
• General search
• Search terms
• Date or time span
• Author
• Classification headings
• Keywords (EUROVOC)
• Search by file category
• Treaties
• Legislation
• Preparatory acts
• Case-law
• Parliamentary questions

• Search by document number
• Natural number
• CELEX number
• Consolidated text
• Search by publication reference
• Official Journal
• European Court Reports

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ŒIL, the Legislative Observatory

• The Observatory analyses and monitors the
  interinstitutional decision-making
• process in the European Union, the role of the
  European Parliament in shaping
• European legislation and the activities of the
  various institutions involved in the
• legislative procedure.
• Search by
• Words
• Reference
• Agent in procedure
• Subjects Countries
• Progress of the procedure
• http//www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/

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Pre-Lex - the database on inter-institutional
procedures

• Follows the major stages of the decision-making
  process between the Commission and
• the other institutions
• stage of the procedure
• decisions of the institutions
• persons' names
• services responsible
• references of documents
• etc
• and monitors the works of the various
  institutions involved (European Parliament,
  Council, ESC, Committee of the Regions, European
  central Bank, Court of Justice, etc.).PreLex
  follows all Commission proposals (legislative and
  budgetary dossiers, conclusions of international
  agreements) and communications from
  their transmission to the Council or the European
  ParliamentLinks allow users to access directly
  the electronic texts available (COM documents,
  Official Journal, Bulletin of the European Union,
  documents of the European Parliament, press
  releases, etc.).
• http//ec.europa.eu/prelex/apcnet.cfm?CLen

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CASE-LAW database Curia (since 17/06/1997)Earlier
case-law is available on EUR-Lex

• Contains
• full texts the full text of judgments, Opinions
  of the Court, Advocates Generals Opinions and
  orders of the Community Courts, delivered since
  17 June 1997 and published in the Reports of
  Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court
  of First Instance or in the European Court
  Reports - Reports of European Community Staff
  Cases.
• summary documents summaries of decisions
  published in the Reports of Cases before the
  Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance
  or in the European Court Reports - Reports of
  European Community Staff Cases are available in
  all official languages.
• information documents information on decisions
  of which the full text is not published in the
  Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and
  the Court of First Instance
• OJ documents notices for publication in the
  Official Journal of the European Union relating
  to cases brought, adjudged or removed from the
  register, published since 1 January 2002.
• http//curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang
  en

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Summaries of Legislation

• This site provides user-friendly fact sheets
  which summarise EU legislation. The fact sheets
  are divided into 32 subject areas which are the
  Activities of the European Union. You will find
  not only summaries of existing measures, but also
  a follow-up of legislative proposals in policies
  as diverse as External Relations and Employment
  and Social Affairs.
• http//europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm